


Two super soldiers and Sam Wilson go to the supermarket

by Swaps16 (Neuro_writer)



Series: The sufferings of Sam Wilson [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Amputee Bucky Barnes, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 09:18:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7309231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neuro_writer/pseuds/Swaps16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sam discovers someone has eaten all the groceries, it calls for a trip to the supermarket. Taking along two super soldiers was never going to be easy. Especially when one of them gets mistaken for a returning veteran and has a wicked streak, whilst the other likes to complain about inflation and how things were different back in their day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two super soldiers and Sam Wilson go to the supermarket

Sam Wilson thought of himself as a calm and patient man. After all he had, until recently held down a job as a VA counsellor. They didn’t just give that position to anyone. You had to go through evaluations; you had to maintain a calm and neutral demeanour, be a listening ear for those who needed you to be there for them. Yes Sam had prided himself on his patience and his caring attitude. It had been part of who he was for a long time. Helping others had in turn allowed him to help himself. Then Captain America comes knocking and he leaves it all behind for another shot at being a hero. Somewhere in the depths of his mind he feels he is atoning for what happened. If he can save lives perhaps it will make up for that one that he couldn’t reach. Helping people came naturally to him. He smiled to himself as he remembered agreeing to aid Steve and Natasha. He had jumped at the chance. Then everything had changed and who knew exactly who was to blame for his life turning on its head.

Now the three of them were holed up in this apartment, he didn’t mind too much being in close proximity to others was something you got used to in the forces. What you didn’t get used to however was living with super soldiers. Sure Steve was polite, he was the genuine ideal of what a gentleman should be. But Barnes, the ex-assassin, still reeling from his brainwashing at the hands of some Nazi scumbags was a different matter. Barnes moaned and complained and was somewhat like living with a big, one armed, slightly murderous child. He was sure Steve would disagree, but then Barnes had a way of wrapping Steve around his little finger. Sure ok, he could cut the guy some slack. Sometimes he wasn’t so bad, just having issues readjusting to life as a normal person. Sam had witnessed that before. Other times though he swore down that the Russians had trained Barnes in both espionage and generally being a dick. 

Steve had referred to him as being a ‘jerk’ and Sam could relate to that. More often than not Barnes had drunk the last of the morning coffee before Sam could get there. Would sprawl himself out over the sofa like some sort of evil feline when Sam wanted to sit down and generally made Sam’s life a misery. He had hoped that maybe taking the super soldier pair to the beach would mean the two of them could get on better, but no nothing had changed. He sighed maybe it was just Bucky’s way of showing affection to people. It wasn’t like he had much experience with positive human contact in the last seventy years. Sam decided what he needed right now was to make something for breakfast. Steve was showering after their morning run and Bucky had just appeared from somewhere looking half awake, moving in an uncharacteristically zombie like way towards the coffee pot.

Yes, breakfast that would get them all ready for the day Sam decided. He prided himself on cooking it was a trait his grandma had passed onto him. What, a man can have many skills makes him a more rounded character. Bucky slumped down in the nearest chair a cup of coffee steaming in front of him as he went to grab the newspaper. That was another thing about these two they insisted on, the old fashioned things. Sam smiled seeing Bucky was using his personalised grumpy cat mug. Sam had explained the relevance and resemblance between the two when purchasing it for him. Bucky had laughed a little then. Turning back to breakfast Sam smiled to himself humming a little tune as he opened the fridge and suddenly his mood dropped significantly.

“Please tell me that you didn’t decide to go and have a midnight snack!” he exclaimed as he took in the bare shelves of the fridge. 

“No” Bucky muttered flicking over the page, seeming unperturbed by Sam’s current distress. The ex-assassin glanced up watching Sam’s desperate searching through the cupboards in their small kitchen.

“James Barnes! You best not be lying to me”

“It’s more effective if you use his middle name as well” Steve helpfully supplied appearing in the doorway. “That way you are definitely going to make him cringe.” Steve’s addition to the conversation was cut short as a spoon hit him on the side of the head. Even with one arm Bucky’s aim never missed.

“I didn’t do anything to your precious food supplies. I think you’ll find that we are out of groceries as none of us have bothered to purchase any for quite some time.” 

“Buck, if you’d known we were out of food why didn’t you say anything?” Steve asked having successfully recovered from Bucky’s previous utensil missile.

“I said you were out of food, I didn’t say that I was.” Oh there was that knowing smile that Sam hated. The sneaky so and so probably had a stockpile somewhere. Something he would put down to enhanced survival instincts most likely if pressed on the matter. Although it had become apparent that Bucky having been without things of his own for a long time, could if left unchecked become quite a hoarder. Sam groaned, there was no way that Bucky would be planning on sharing which meant only one thing, he was going to have to go grocery shopping.

Not that grocery shopping that Sam particularly despised, just that he knew he would be taking Blondie and murder child along with him. Steve had shown an express interest in supermarkets once he had gained an idea of the variety now on offer. Bucky just liked to tag along and both Sam and Steve had agreed allowing him to make some choices in regards to food was a positive experience. Usually Sam negotiated the ordeal by allowing the two geriatrics to use a computer to shop online. That way they didn’t have to go out into public, which could draw unwanted attention to the three of them. Things were slowly getting better but Bucky was still not the most popular person out there and Steve literally glowed with patriotism, as though a giant neon sign indicating he was Captain America was strapped to him at all times.

“Alright, I would say online shopping but that won’t turn up in time.” He groaned “which means we are going to have to go to the shops.” Oh and did he ever catch the excited glint that came in Bucky’s eye at the mention of engaging with the outside world. “I don’t want any problems Barnes I mean it, if I ever find a place that does adult sized baby reins I am getting you some.” Bucky smirked as he gulped down his coffee and meandered back towards the bedroom, hopefully to get suitably dressed for the day.

Twenty minutes later and Sam was waiting at the door, his patience slowly slipping away. How had he gone from such a patient man to one who could barely deal with two grown men? Deciding to see what the problem was he moved towards the bedroom. He was surprised upon entering the space Bucky and Steve shared to see it wasn’t the former assassin causing the problems. Bucky was sat on the bed dressed casually in jeans and a hoodie with one sleeved pinned up. He had pulled his hair up, away from his face and had even found the time to shave. Other than the missing arm, he would probably draw no unwarranted attention, perhaps a few sympathetic stares but nothing untoward.

“I can’t see what’s wrong with this outfit, Buck” Steve moaned patting down the front of his shirt.

“Well other than looking like other men born in our generation, I would say too smart for a casual grocery shop.” 

“As much as it pains me, I have to agree.” Steve stood looking flustered. It was clear from the clothes piled up on the floor he wasn’t used to making simple decisions like this in modern life. Come to think of it he usually went for the undercover look, his uniform or workout clothes. 

“Put on a t-shirt with the jeans and a jacket.” Sam supplied pointing at the clothes he thought would draw the least attention. The thing with Steve was that he stood out in a crowd. Barnes had a way of slipping into the shadows and hiding from view. However over six foot of muscled blonde tended to draw attention. Hopefully they would beat the rush and the shops would be relatively quiet. At least that’s what Sam was hoping for.

Bucky had resigned himself that his place in the car was in the back seat behind the passenger so he diligently stood waiting to be let in.

“Oh no, not today buddy, you are sitting in the front where I can see you.”

“You sure you want him in the front with you Sam?” Steve asked, whether out of concern for Sam’s mental state or the fact he didn’t want to be the one squeezed in the back it was hard to tell.

“Hey quit talking ‘bout me like I’m not here, or worse like I’m the family dog.” Bucky snarked back, looking a bit confused about the change to his usual car routine. 

“Yeah I’m pretty sure, man the last time that guy was behind me in a car, I was driving he ripped out the steering wheel, I want to have him where I can see what he’s up to.” Sam knew he was being paranoid; Bucky had ben an excellent passenger for their last few trips. Ok excellent was pushing it, he snored when he fell asleep, complained about the music choices, kicked the back of chairs but in comparison to the damage he’d done as the Winter soldier it was nothing. Anyway Sam knew being to see exactly what Bucky was up to whilst he was driving would put his mind at ease.

Steve it turned out wasn’t any better at folding his super soldier bulk into the back of their small car. It was noted that when things settled down they would upgrade to something that would allow car journeys to be more comfortable. The ride was pretty short, not long enough for any squabbles to break out. Bucky was quiet, eye trained out the window lost in his own thoughts. Steve was busy writing a shopping list in his notepad, checking every once in a while to ask Sam what he thought they might need.

Wal-Mart to the average American was just a large grocery store. Sam had somehow forgotten that he was not in the presence of two ordinary American’s. His first sign came when Bucky started spitting Russian curses at the shopping carts. Sam calmly explained that you had to put a quarter in them to get them to unlock from one another, before quickly escorting Bucky away and leaving Steve to grab the cart. He had no doubt that given a few more minutes with the carts Barnes would have come up with some way of getting a cart, which wouldn’t have involved money but may have involved a costly lawsuit.

Steve admittedly had been out in the modern world longer for Bucky so had some idea that prices had increased. Although hanging around with Tony Stark up until quite recently hadn’t really allowed him to appreciate how much. Being in the presence of a billionaire who brought things on a whim sort of made a person forget about the value of everyday items. Still he couldn’t help himself from commenting.

“Really Sam how are people on low incomes supposed to feed themselves in this day and age?” Sam watched as he gasped at the price of a bag of potatoes. “Seriously Sam are people starving out there, the prices are ridiculous. Buck come look at this will ya, these are more than a week’s of our wages.” Sam held back his groan; the two of them were as bad as each other. Although Steve in particular needed reminding that the world currently wasn’t still stuck in a post-war depression.

“Steve you are aware that you are the recipient of some serious back-pay regarding the whole incident in the artic, involving a plane, that we don’t go into in detail as it tends to cause a certain someone to develop a nervous twitch” 

“Oh well I guess. I mean it is nice to be able to afford things but it just seems to expensive these days. You are lucky to have such a wide choice nowadays; back when we grew up there wasn’t really any choice when it came to groceries. Don’t you agree Buck? Buck?” Steve’s eyes darted upwards and took in their surroundings with an intense scrutiny as he realised his best friend was missing from their outing. 

If there was one thing Sam Wilson didn’t want to have to deal with, it was a slightly awed national hero and his potentially dangerous one-armed best buddy getting separated in Wal-Mart. However things ever went the way Sam wanted them to. So it turned out that Bucky had seen something that had caught his attention and had wandered away from them. Several different scenarios ran through Sam’s mind and most ended in a pleading call to Natasha to please deal with the media fall out.

“Don’t reckon he will have gone far” Steve supplied although he didn’t sound completely convinced as he took in the scale of the store. 

As it turned out Bucky hadn’t gone too far from where they had been. His mind wandered taking in the strategically weaknesses of the store, the emergency exits and then something else. The store had a sort of strange clean scent to it, but from where he was standing the aroma of fresh fruit had caught his attention. Back in the pre-war days Bucky had worked on the docks, occasionally a shipment of fruit had come their way and with it the most wonderful smells. But even that couldn’t compare with what he was facing now. In front of him were more types of fruit than he ever could have imagined. Slowly he decided to try picking them all up in turn, testing the firmness and taking a sniff to determine if he fancied trying them, smiling all the while that this plethora of fruit had sparked another memory from his past.

“Are you alright there dear?” The voice shocked him out of his contemplative state. Luckily he had the presence of mind not to attack the owner of the voice. “Oh I am sorry I didn’t mean to spook you, just wondered if you wanted any advice?” the voice paused and Bucky snuck a glance at the person beside him. Female, mid to late forties, wearing some sort of casual work out gear, not what he would expect to find in a store. “I recommend the blueberries they are in season right now, or maybe the melons they are on offer.” When she didn’t get a response other than a vacant look she turned to look at the man next to her properly. “Oh gosh, you poor thing, I’m so sorry. Thank you though for your service, it means a lot you brave young men are out there fighting for our country.” Bucky continued to look dumbfounded, was this woman really thanking him for his time under HYDRA’s control, for all the terrible things he had done over the past seventy years. No, he remembered something Sam had said about people thanking veterans. Perhaps that was it; she thought he had been deployed recently.

“Ah James, there you are” Bucky whipped round hearing the professional voice of Sam Wilson, not the voice of his friend but the one that spoke with the authority of a counsellor. “I was wondering where you had gotten off to. If you wanted fruit you only had to say.” He smiled then, warm and friendly at the woman. “I am sorry about James here, sometimes he forgets where he is.” Bucky held back the scowl that threatened to darken his features, and Sam knew he would be paying for this later. “Thank you for talking to him whilst I caught up, so then James you decided which of these nice fruits you are going to be getting today.”

“Poor dear,” the woman all but stage whispered to Sam “Such a shame those young lads come back so messed up from what they’ve seen.” She paused rummaging in here bag before producing a crumpled note thrusting it into Bucky’s hand. “Here you go sweetheart, you get your friend here to help you pick out something nice alright.” She smiled endearingly and patted him on the arm before returning to her shopping cart and wandering off. 

“Wilson” Bucky’s voice was laced with distaste “Please tell me what just happened and why that woman thought I needed to receive money. Do I look like some sort of bum?” 

“Think she wanted to thank you Buck, probably thought you’d come back from one of those modern wars, you know like Sam mentioned.” Steve supplied as he sidled up to the pair of them. He had been standing away as the exchange had happened. Out of the three of them he was still the most conspicuous, so felt it best he didn’t draw further attention to the exchange going on beside the fruit stands. Oh Bucky knew what Sam had mentioned he just hadn’t expected people to come up to him without a second thought and offer him money. 

“She most likely knew someone that served, not everyone is going to be giving you money, although it’ll be good that you can contribute to the groceries, seeming you tend to hoard them away” Sam grinned earning him a half hearted punch to the arm in response. 

“No way pal, she gave me the money, I’m going to spend it on myself.” Bucky smirked as he popped two punnets of blueberries into the cart. Sam sighed; nothing was ever easy with Barnes around. Maybe if he tried asking Steve he might get some money back for shelling out for groceries.

What Sam hadn’t appreciated was that in person super soldiers out of ice would actually want to physically look at every single item available to them. Online he guessed they were more used to just clicking the first thing that came up. Bucky had grinned to himself in the drinks aisle before plonking three bottles of soda into the cart.

“I had to get them Stevie, they match your colour scheme.”

“Buck you don’t even know if you like..” Steve turned the bottle of the obnoxiously blue liquid round so he could read the label “Blue raspberry soda.” Sam watched as his face contorted into trying to understand the colour and fruit combination.

“I guess I’m not the only thing they’ve scientifically altered then.” He mumbled to himself. “Sam do you reckon he is going to actually drink this?”

“Let him have it, I’ll get some money out of his account somehow to pay for his share, I know he has back pay in the same way you do.” Steve just nodded in agreement as he attempted to steer them towards the bakery section of the store.  
Bread was acquired in vast quantities once Sam had explained that it could be frozen. He had held back on making a quip about other things that could be frozen, the two soldiers might be recovering but they weren’t quite at a stage to joke about it all, if ever. Steve had smiled fondly seeing bagels and had thrown some in alongside the bread with encouraging smiles from Bucky who was staring in wide eyed amazement at the cakes lined up in the display case.

“Hey Buck you thinking of spending your funds on one of those?” Steve asked coming to stand behind his friend. “They sure do look good don’t they? Imagine if we had cakes like this back when we were young.”

“We’d have been lucky to have the ingredients for a cake. Although I can imagine you’d have drawn something elaborate like this in it’s place for a birthday or something.” Bucky smiled and Sam watched the two of them pondering the cakes.

“You know if you got one of these we could share it out later on” again Sam reckoned that of looks could kill and he wasn’t completely sure that Bucky’s couldn’t, he would be dead right now for his suggestion. He’d have to research at some point who taught ex-soviet assassins to scowl, because they had done a wonderful job. Natasha could pull of the exact same look he realised as he slowly began to mumble an apology for his words. 

“But we’re already going to be sharing the rest of the groceries, technically the money was for me, so I’m going to buy something for myself. Reckon I’ll take a chocolate bar or something like that. I had a couple back on the run, you know before this all blew up in our faces quite literally.” 

“Sure Buck, you know what type you want or shall we go look at them.” Steve offered looking around to work out which aisle they would need. Sam had noticed the slightly pained look in his face at Bucky mentioning his time on the run. To think the guy had managed to carve out an existence for himself after so long without any identity or idea of who he was; was quite astounding. Sam guessed it had been his first chance at realising he was capable of having things without someone handing them to him, or taking them away directly after an order had been completed.

“Don’t think they’d do them here, you know what with them being a European thing, but I reckon I could settle for a Hershey’s bar or something similar.” 

The candy aisle was Sam supposed the closest they were going to get to Disneyland for his two new companions, whilst they were remaining undercover. He had read about the war, hell everyone had read about the war, it was mandatory education in history class. He had read lines upon lines about rationing, how there was hardly anything to eat for those coming from the poorer neighbourhoods. So he could imagine the wonder that came from seeing floor to ceiling stacks of candy and chocolate.

Bucky eyed everything critically working out exactly what he wanted to purchase. It was almost like a mission, he wanted something that tasted good, was of a decent price and a variety that would allow him to experience as many different new flavours as possible. Steve on the other hand had turned into the child, drawn in by the bright colours and the mascots assigned to different brands. Sam was surprised to see the latter throwing in more than a few different things, after all Steve was usually one for eating healthily, even if it was in huge amounts. 

Sam himself picked up a couple of bars of milk Hershey’s and some marshmallows. He had a plan to make some smores later on for the three of them to enjoy. In the end the candy aisle was the one in which they spent the most time. In the end Bucky selected the things he wanted making sure they were placed separately from all the other groceries in their cart. He then made sure to cover them up with some of the bread that was in there so that nobody else was able to see his chosen selection. 

The rest of their trip went well, food was placed into the cart and although it was beginning to stack up to quite precarious levels. Sam wondered how they were going to fit it all into the car when they left the store but he was sure they would think of something. Paying for all of this food was going to be interesting, he wondered what the cashier was going to make of three men and the sheer amount of food they were buying.

It turned out the cashier, a teenager who looked as though they wished to be anywhere other than at work wasn’t at all bothered by the amount of food that was being checked out on their till. They read out the final total with an air of boredom waiting for one of the two men standing at the end of the checkout to decide how to pay. It was apparent they were with the third man who was carefully eyeing the selection of candy laid out ready to be scanned. Why they hadn’t all paid together was a little strange but then it became apparent that the third guy wanted to pay cash. A quick glance showed he was missing an arm, maybe the other two were his support workers or something, the kid didn’t even care. As the last of the things were packed into the bags he tonelessly wished them a good day.

“Do you think that guy wasn’t happy with his place of work?” Steve asked arms laden down with shopping bags, although Sam noticed slightly enviously that he didn’t seem to be bothered by this. 

“Before you get onto some rant about worker’s rights in this century,” Sam chimed in smiling at Steve “All the kids, or well most of them that work in the store act like that. They’d rather be off out doing something fun, than helping us pack away our groceries.” 

“Well we would have relished a nice easy job like that before the war, easy work and possibly good pay.” Sam rolled his eyes good-naturedly and looked over at Bucky who was doing his part by carrying as many bags as he could. Admittedly he dumped them all by the car and clambered into the front seat as soon as he could but at least he had helped. 

In the front of the car Bucky glanced over the collection of candies he had purchased. He thought it would be nice to share them perhaps; after all he had sort of eaten the last of the groceries in the fridge, not that he was actually going to admit it. In doing so he had managed to get Sam and Steve to take him outside, where he had interacted with a member of the public. Sometimes he felt they were keeping him in a little bubble, although he couldn’t determine whether it was for his own protection or for everybody else’s. 

“Alright there Buck” His door was pulled open by a smiling Steve. “We’ve run out of room in the back so you’re going to have to put these ones down in the foot well.” He explained holding up some grocery bags. Bucky nodded shifting so that space was made for them. “So which ones you thinking of trying first then?” Steve asked looking at the collection of items Bucky had purchased. Bucky just shrugged in response. 

It wasn’t until Sam had pulled out of the parking lot that Bucky made his decision. The bright green packaging of the supposedly fruit flavoured candies had caught his attention as soon as he had seen it. He twisted round to offer one to Steve who declined already munching on a sandwich he’d grabbed out of one of the bags closest to him.

“Alright then, I’ll take one, thanks” Sam smiled as Bucky handed him one of the small round candies. Sam hadn’t actually seen what he had been offered as he popped it in his mouth, eyes too busy watching the road. Bucky chewed on his candy thoughtfully taking in the flavour and enjoying the sensation as the sour flavour filled his mouth. It seemed Sam however wasn’t so keen.

“Barnes! Did you just give me a sour skittle without me noticing.” Sam mumbled his face contorting with displeasure at the sweet he was eating. Bucky didn’t respond right away, just smiling to himself.

“Well Wilson, you did say it would be nice of me to share what I brought with you.” Bucky smirked and it was a smirk that wouldn't have looked out of place in the history textbooks, most likely labelled with a caption akin to 'Steve Roger's best friend Bucky Barnes."

From the back seat Steve smiled as his two friends continued to bicker about the sour candies as they returned to their apartment. Sure they didn’t have all the freedoms they could have wanted and some days it was hard for the three of them. After all they all had their demons to face. But sometimes it seemed like it might just all work out and he couldn’t have asked for someone better to aid Bucky than Sam.


End file.
